✝️ Teaira Batey, age 28 – January 13 2014, Gary, Indiana, USA 🇺🇸💔
Teaira battled seizures throughout her life. She was bipolar and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression and also HIV positive. She had off-and-on problems with heroin.
Teaira was mother of two girls. They were placed in the custody of the state and eventually adopted. She was also mother of a little son. In November 2013 she got released from jail after a drug conviction, got clean and tried to get her life together, including attending parenting classes.
The last time her mother heard from her, she was crying on the phone, sounded scared and wanted someone to pick her up. She war never heard from again. Her partner said it wasn’t uncommon for Teaira to leave for about a week, but she always called to speak to their 2-year-old son. After a week or two went by and Teaira had not come back for her sons second birthday party, which she had planned herself, the family grew worried.
In late February, a friend started spreading rumors that Teaira was dead in an abandoned building in the city’s west side. The police department felt unable to search the city´s thousands of abandoned structures. Her partner then himself searched 30 abandoned homes in the city before officers told him it was unsafe to do so by himself. He said city officials sat down with him after Teira had been found and apologized for any mistakes made in the missing person’s case.
Teaira was murdered by serial killer Darren Deon Vann (age 43), who also killed six other women. Nine months after her disappearance her body was finally found in such a decomposed state, that the only option was cremation, something her mother is still coming to terms with.
